Traffic Safety and Commercial Parking

Traffic Safety Unit

The Traffic Safety Unit is comprised of Law Enforcement Officers from the Lincolnwood Police Department. The key objectives are to reduce the risk of impaired, distracted driving, speeding and risks to pedestrians from motor vehicles. As part of Patrol Operations, the Traffic Safety Unit enforces all traffic laws and Village ordinances. The Traffic Unit’s primary objectives are to reduce traffic crashes and make the Lincolnwood community a safer place for motor vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians to navigate.

In addition the Traffic Safety Unit has a specially trained officers who conduct truck enforcement operations. The Truck Officers work to reduce the impact to public safety by enforcing truck overweight and vehicle safety violations.

The Traffic Safety Unit utilizes both marked and unmarked vehicles to achieve their objectives. In addition, specialized technology is utilized to both gather data as well as raising awareness to the motoring public to reduce their speed. Some of this technology is passive, in which it only records volume, speed and direction of vehicles traveling on the roadway. Our feedback signs, provide a visual reminder to slow down, to identify when a vehicle is traveling above a posted speed limit, to help the driver manually reduce the speed. These feedback signs also gather information on speed, volume and direction vehicles are traveling. The data gathered from these two devices assist in helping the Traffic Safety Unit identify enforcement priorities by narrowing the focus to specific periods of the day or night. In addition the Lincolnwood Police Department works closely with the Public Works Department and the Village of Lincolnwood Traffic Commission in our Traffic Calming Policy.

The Traffic Safety Unit deploys both types of devices on a regular basis, based upon accident trends, complaints from residents or during high profile traffic safety holiday periods.

These officers also investigate traffic crashes, along with all other forms of traffic enforcement, including directing patrols, roadside safety checks, overweight truck inspections, seat belt enforcement zones, DUI enforcement, and special traffic watches. They create Problem Oriented Policing projects to work with the community and in engineering to make the roadways of Lincolnwood safe for all.

In addition the Traffic Safety Unit works closely with the Patrol Bureau, outside agencies such as the Cook County Sheriffs Police, The Illinois Department of Transportation, Major Crash Assistance Team (MCAT), and the Illinois State Police.

Training:

Many of the traffic officers have had additional training and are certified in:

Crash Reconstruction: The Lincolnwood Police Department utilizes the services of the Major Crash Assistance Team (MCAT) for certain crashes that involve serious injuries or fatalities. This multi-jurisdictional team is comprised of crash reconstructionists, investigators, and evidence technicians. These individuals are certified in the utilization of the crash data retrieval system to allow specialists to copy and analyze data from an event data recorder located inside a vehicle. This data is retrieved through the use of the vehicle’s on-board diagnostic data-link connector. The data can assist in developing a situationally complete crash reconstruction.

Drug Recognition Expert: Officers that have received extensive and specialized training in drug recognition impairment.

Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety: Certified in the enforcement of the state adopted Federal Motor Carrier Regulation and the inspection of commercial vehicles for safety and weight violations

Commercial Vehicle Parking Regulations

On August 15 and September 5, 2017, the Village Board amended the Village Code regarding commercial vehicle parking regulations after a series of public meetings to discuss the matter. Provided below is a summary of the amended regulations.

What Is a Commercial Vehicle

A commercial vehicle is any vehicle used to conduct business. This includes taxicabs, limousines, panel vans, trucks, vehicles used in connection with construction and landscaping, tow trucks, vehicles used to advertise a business or a product, delivery vehicles, and businesses used for ride-sharing services.

Parking

Commercial vehicles in residential areas must be parked within enclosed garages or follow the regulations summarized below. No commercial vehicles may park on residential streets overnight.
Recreational vehicles are prohibited within residential driveways with the exception of boats April 2- October 30 and snowmobile November 30-March 31.
No more than two vehicles with snowplows attached may be parked on residential driveways from November 1- April 1.
Construction vehicles such as bobcats are prohibited on residential driveways unless for construction that has a valid building permit.